Third umpire role requires specialist skills in age of DRS and now needs a reboot
Once considered the cushiest job in cricket, the demands of technology now mean the third umpire must be part mathematician and part computer geek as well as being an expert in the laws of the game.
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Is it time for cricket to employ technology geeks as third umpires?
Umpires who not just love cricket but love screens and buttons and hot spots, snickos, keeping count and ordering replays like they might order a soy latte. Young, alert minds with eyes for detail.
The sense that the third umpire role needs to be looked at flared after Pakistan’s Aleem Dar somehow made a mess of a caught behind decision off Mitchell Santner to a ball which clearly deflected off his sweatband yet was given not out.
Dar, 51, became the world’s most experienced Test umpire in this series when he made his 129th Test appearance.
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He is a thoroughly decent man who used to donate a portion of his monthly wage to the family of the bus driver who was killed in 2009 when he was driving the Sri Lankan cricket team to a Test in Lahore.
But he is also out of form and not suited to the role of third umpire.
When the third umpire was introduced to the cricket world in 1993 the joke was that it was the cushiest job in the world.
The gag went that on the rare occasions the third umpires were disturbed, racing form guides and chip packets would fly everywhere in the umpire’s box because they would be filling in their day in other ways.
But that was when all they had to worry about was run outs, stumpings and the occasional boundary ruling.
Layer upon layer of technology has made it a more complex and important job and it has reached the point where the skill set required for an off-field umpire is far different to what is required for the men on the field.
These days the third umpire has to be part mathematician who keeps count of balls in the over, fields restrictions, over rates and a multitude of other responsibilities even before you reach game-breaking DRS decisions.
Cricket will surely one day have a specialist third umpire panel at international level.
There is a feeling in Australian cricket one of the best third umpires in the country is Goulburn’s experienced Claire Polosak, regarded for her great knowledge of the laws and exceptional communication skills.
If rugby league and AFL can have female umpires and referees there should be no reason why men’s cricket internationals could feature female third umpires.
You need people who are stimulated by the job rather than confused by it.
Originally published as Third umpire role requires specialist skills in age of DRS and now needs a reboot